Published 4:00 am, Sunday, May 25, 2003

2003-05-25 04:00:00 PDT Los Angeles -- Movies that have been rated X, banned and censored will be available to cable TV viewers in September when the IFC network introduces "Uncensored on Demand."

The video-on-demand service will provide "programming that has been suppressed, censored and generally unavailable," says IFC Companies President Kathleen Dore.

Among the previously verboten material on IFC's slate: the Swedish porn classic "I Am Curious -- Yellow"; the documentary "Damned in the USA," which includes footage of artwork by Andres Serrano (creator of "Piss Christ") and Robert Mapplethorpe; "Maitresse," which was censored in Britain and stars Gerard Depardieu as a thief who breaks into the home of a professional dominatrix and winds up "training" her clients; "Talk to Me," an unrated indie film about phone sex; and, for fans of dirty politics, there's "Feed," a documentary about the 1992 presidential election featuring previously unseen footage of H. Ross Perot, George Bush and Bill Clinton.

New dimension: 3-D has come a long way since "Bwana Devil," the B picture that introduced reach-out-and-touch-somebody illusions to moviegoers in 1952.

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Last month, viewers used special glasses to watch James Cameron's "Ghost of the Abyss," and on Friday the "Shrek 4-D" attraction opened at Universal Studio Hollywood, where guests put on "Ogrevision" glasses to view a 13-minute chapter in the continuing Shrek saga.

"Shrek" producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, who worked with PDI/DreamWorks in Palo Alto to come up with the theme-park attraction, told me earlier this month that the day is coming when 3-D feature films will be commonplace -- and you won't have to wear those goofy cardboard specs to enjoy them.

"We've looked at it and studied it, and would love to do it," Katzenberg said, "but there are too many barriers to do it right now in terms of the economics and how you exhibit it.

"But I guarantee it, as sure as you and I are sitting here, in our lifetime,

we will be seeing real, two-hour narrative films that are 3-D experiences, and it's likely you won't have to wear glasses. There are technological breakthroughs that are going to occur -- they're actually out there (now), they're just not practical yet -- in which you'll be able see it in your home."

3-D, without the glasses?

"Yeah."

Say hello to the R-rated family film: "The Matrix Reloaded" shattered the opening weekend record for an R-rated film previously held by "Hannibal" and will soon top the $234 million domestic take of "Beverly Hills Cops" to become the biggest-grossing "restricted" film of all time.

"Matrix"-level box office doesn't happen without the help of moviegoers 17 and younger, which means cineplexes these past few weeks have been crowded with action-hungry minors towing along their parents or guardians.

Hollywood traditionally has favored PG-13 films for its biggest releases, but this summer the studios seem willing to let the sex and violence chips fall where they will. Earlier this month, "Matrix" producer Joel Silver dismissed concerns about the R rating. Asked about the Motion Picture Association of America's "some sci-fi violence" warning, he said, "I don't even know what that means."